Omnibus bill taking shape

What do the B-61 bomb, the Abu Dhabi airport, and federal tax payments to Western timber towns have to do with one another?

Nothing really — but all are part of a governmentwide spending bill taking shape in Congress, a $1 trillion-plus omnibus measure that seeks to restore some order to a broken appropriations process and avert any threat of a shutdown fight Jan. 15.

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December’s budget agreement set the overall spending number, but the devil’s in the details now — with little sugar to help the medicine go down. Earmarks are gone. It’s a cold-turkey exercise in governance, the likes of which Washington hasn’t seen in years.

Turn up the Rolling Stones: “You can’t always get what you want.” Throw out the old metaphors. Last train out of the station? This is more like Noah’s Ark. Or the mother of all term papers for a Congress that has slept through most of its classes.

Does the Energy Department really need to spend billions to extend the life of 400 B-61 nuclear bombs? Should U.S. Customs and Border Protection proceed with a new passenger pre-clearance program at Abu Dhabi — funded largely by the United Arab Emirates but opposed by American airlines? Who has $400 million to spare to compensate Western towns surrounded by federal forests and parks exempted from local property taxes?

And that’s the easy stuff.

The last House-Senate exercise that came close to this was at the tail end of 2011 after a brutal debt ceiling fight that shook the financial markets all summer. Even then, the task was accomplished in two steps, not one. And it followed months of floor debate in which lawmakers were immersed in the details of government programs — something absent from this Congress.

Indeed, in the years since, much of the government has been left on autopilot, funded through stopgap bills and subject to across-the-board cuts. Almost despite themselves, House Republicans have stumbled into success, rolling back domestic appropriations to levels below 2008 levels. The question now is whether they can govern, allocating these resources together with the White House and Democrats so the country can go forward.

Without doubt, each page of the giant omnibus bill will give someone a reason to vote no. But to go backward and fail is not without cost. Just look at the beating all of Washington has been taking in public opinion polls.

At center stage are the House and Senate Appropriations committees, whose staffs have been working through the holidays to try to pull together a draft package — really 12 bills in one.

About half these — covering the Departments of Commerce, Justice, Homeland Security, Defense and Veterans Affairs and major science agencies — have been largely finalized. And right up to New Year’s Eve, there were conference calls with lawmakers Tuesday and reports of continued progress on the major spending issues.

Funding for President Barack Obama’s signature health care and financial reforms — as well as environmental riders sought by conservatives — are still roadblocks. But the goal is to narrow the field as best possible before meetings next week, when the two committee chairs — Rep. Harold Rogers (R-Ky.) and Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) — can made their final decisions.

December’s budget agreement makes the task doable — but scarcely easy. And having risked the wrath of the right by blocking sequestration, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) is keeping a tight rein on any score-keeping adjustments that might help Appropriations.

The new 2014 cap for nondefense discretionary spending is $491.8 billion, which will require Senate Democrats to cut $14 billion from the domestic bills reported over the summer. At the same time, Republicans must trim $25 billion from defense-related bills approved by the House last summer if the GOP is to meet the new target of $520.5 billion.

This sets up a battle of perceptions for both parties.

Just before Christmas, for example, Congress approved an ambitious defense authorization bill that was largely in denial about the real perils of the budget situation for the military. How will hawks react when they come back and see an appropriation that saves the Pentagon’s bacon but is still tens of billions less than the House and Senate Armed Services committees had envisioned?